Nava Thakuria A new debate has emerged in Assam soon after the State government decided to make a controversial report on an infamous massacre public. The recent cabinet meeting had approved the initiative to release the Tewari commission report on the 1983 Nellie mass killing citing the reason that the findings also highlighted the demographic changes taking place in Assam after 1951. State chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while speaking to media in Guwahati, asserted that a number of disturbing incidents took place affecting the local residents and they retaliated targeting the Bangladesh-origin Muslim settlers in Nellie locality Pronounced as Neli, the central Assam locality under Morigaon (earlier in undivided Nagaon) district witnessed the mass killing of thousands of people after several hundred indigenous people (mostly belonging to Tiwa tribe) attacked many Muslim dominated villages on 18 February, 1983.
The attackers burnt a number of thatched houses and started physically assaulting the settlers and the massacre came to an end only after the arrival of para-military personnel. Various media reports, now available on digital space, indicated at least 2000 individuals, including children, women and elderly, lost their lives in the single day carnage. Prelude to the massacre had grown up with a series of crimes, including rapes of local women, allegedly committed by the immigrant Bengalispeaking Muslims upon the tribal villagers. The attacks were carried out to take revenge against those settlers. However, the Muslims argued that they were targeted for their participation in the controversial February 1983 Assam Assembly election, which was boycotted by the mainstream Assamese voters following an appeal from All Assam Students Union (ASSU) and Asom Gana Sangram Parishad (AGSP).
Both the organizations, who led the historic anti-foreigners movement, demanded to hold the polls with a new voters’ list eliminating the names of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Soon after the worst incident of collective violence during the peak of Assam’s historic anti-influx agitation (1979 to 1985), the government constituted a commission on 14 July to look into the circumstances leading to the disturbances. The commission, headed by retired IAS officer Tribhuvan Prasad Tewary, submitted its over 500-page report next year, but it was never made public. Even though over 650 police complaints were lodged, none was arrested and hence nobody was made accountable for the crime and violence, because all cases were dropped by the Union government in New Delhi following the signing of the memorandum of settlement (popularly known as Assam Accord) in 1985.
Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Nellie on 21 February and announced compensation to the victim families (Rs 5000 to those who lost family members and Rs 3000 for the wounded individuals). Fresh elections were conducted in Assam after the accord signed in the presence of then PM Rajiv Gandhi and the newly launched Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) came to power in Dispur. A Japanese scholar (Makiko Kimura) for her PhD programme under New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, visited Nellie locality and later a book titled ‘The Nellie Massacre of 1983: Agency of Rioters’ was published in 2013 by the SAGE publications with her research works. At least two Indian journalists (Hemendra Narayan of The Indian Express and Bedabrata Lahkar of The Assam Tribune) reported the incident promptly after visiting the locations. Narayan, who died a decade back, also penned a book titled ‘25 years on.. Nellie still haunts’, where he documented his experiences in those fateful days.
While this writer spoke to Lahkar, now retiring in Guwahati, stated that he went there incidentally on the same day and witnessed a few being killed by the mob. He stated that the media reported around 2000 Muslim casualties during the massacre, whereas the actual count may be higher. Many of them even jumped to a running water body to escape the attackers. The veteran scribe however asserted that the attack was not inspired by communal sentiments, and it was observed that the tribal aggressors did not touch Assamese Muslim families residing in Nellie market area. Film scholar Parthajit Baruah, who made an Assamese feature film titled ‘Nelir Kotha’ (The Nellie Story), admitted that the truth should come out, but he argued that it was not the favourable time for making the Nellie massacre report public. Written, directed and produced by him, the full-length film is based on the darkest episode of Assam’s recent history and Baruah insisted that nobody should use the report for political gains.
He was clear in views that many tribal people were also killed in retaliation of the Muslim settlers and the Tewari commission had probably included those statistics as well. The young film maker also opined that a fresh look at the gory incident may reveal many facts, not yet discussed in the public forum. THE WRITER IS A GUWAHATI-BASED SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STATESMAN